It’s a strange time in world sport. After a global pandemic it feels like someone has pushed the fast forward switch and investors are clamouring to spend, spend, spend.
We just had the Open Championship in golf won by our very own Cam Smith but all the headlines were about the rebel LIV tour and the enormous money being offered to players.
In cricket, South Africa pulled out of the ODIs against Australia for the summer threatening their own World Cup qualification in the process. It seemed like a curious decision but overnight the reasons became more obvious.
Money.
The Indian Premier League franchise owners have agreed in principle to buy all six teams in South Africa’s new T20 league. The South African T20 league was of course the reason why South Africa decided to pull out of the Australian ODIs in the first place to make sure all their players were available.
Cricket South Africa, just like the IPL in April has effectively blocked out a window in January and early February. They’ve told the ICC in no uncertain terms that they won’t be hosting any International cricket in this period and the sole focus will be on the T20 competition.
According to Cricinfo former player Graeme Smith is the head of the new T20 league and is currently in the process of making sure the IPL deals are watertight before making a formal announcement.
(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
If all goes according to plan then Cricket South Africa’s T20 competition is likely to become one of the richest T20 tournaments in the world behind the IPL. There are rumours that because it will be an IPL-backed tournament that Indian players might actually be allowed to play (currently they’re banned from other T20 tournaments to protect the IPL brand).
The question is where does this leave the BBL?
South Africa’s T20 league is over in five weeks but it’s right when the Big Bash comes to its conclusion each year. When the South African league starts offering big money to Australian players and other overseas stars it’s hard to see how the BBL will compete.
Whether you like it or loathe it, there’s no doubting the success of the Big Bash as one of Australia’s most lucrative domestic sports leagues. The problem is it’s competing on a global scale and that competition just got even harder.
Cricket Australia may have no choice but to seek mega investors just like South Africa has done. Whether that’s bowing to IPL owners or bringing in money from other areas.
They talk about the LIV golf revolution affecting all sports and it feels like cricket is also at a crossroads just like golf.
The ICC was able to work around an IPL window each year but if more and more windows open up for T20 cricket it’s going to put a strain on every competition both domestic and international.
The Big Bash is about to hold its draft for next season. They’ll still be able to pick up some decent names for the start of the tournament but I’ll be very surprised if many stars are still playing after December 31 if South Africa starts throwing money around.
It would be a massive blow if Australian stars were poached considering the Big Bash touted the cancellation of the South Africa ODI series would mean those players would be available for January BBL.
WINSTON
Roar Rookie
Probably correct Greg, but the league will still thrive without Australia, if it needs to. India seems to be the real boss of cricket these days
WINSTON
Roar Rookie
Interesting article. CSA need this 1 to work. And if its managed with IPL expertise, all well and good.
13th Man
Roar Rookie
The BBL as a concept is dead. Part of me hopes that this South African league kills it off for good and we can get back to prioritising Sheffield Shield in our summer. CA are flogging a dead horse, the draft adds literally zero interest for most cricket fans.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Excellent summation TB . I especially support the ( inevitable) scrapping of ODIs and these incessant annual World Cups diminishing their value .
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I think many of the established international cricket nations aspire to Test cricket, but mostly the Test series outside of the big 3 playing each other, are being reduced to two/three Test series as it's simply too expensive to stage Tests, especially being the host (I think I read that outside of Aus/Eng, which will be 5 Test series through to 2027, the rest of India's series are to be two-Tests only). So not sure it's the likes of Australia/India simply refusing to play a 5 Test series in Sri Lanka - I don't think Sri Lanka has any interest whatsoever in hosting a 5 Test match series. I think it's around $1m-$1.5m per Test. Test cricket has its place, but the reality is that the Test series will shrink back to those countries which can get a return from staging it. And that is absolutely the case for India, Australia, England (partly because there is a history there and because of that - and also partly because of population/economic strength - the interest remains strong) . All bilateral series between those nations are to be increased to 5 Tests per series in the this next FTP round (5 years forward scheduling), because there actually is interest from each of those three markets re Tests and their number crunching shows it is profitable/sustainable - so e.g. future Border-Gavaskar series are to be 5 Tests. *IF* the West Indies were still a Test powerhouse, they'd have been part of that 5 Test schedule as well. But external factors re competition for sports-interest overtook Windies cricket quite some time ago and so Tests are still considered of foundational importance, but the reality is the WICB can't support longer series financially. And South Africa and New Zealand are on the financial knife's edge re making Test cricket work. The likes of Afghanistan and Ireland no doubt would like to be Test competitors, but sadly there is simply no way they can financially afford to stage enough Test -and FC comps - to ever allow them to be competitive in red ball moving forward. T20 is a cause of less Test cricket amongst many ICC members, but so is the cost of hosting Tests. So Tests may shrink to a handful of competing nations, but I see no reason as that being a cause to get rid of Tests. India is the financial powerhouse and is the main driver behind T20, though I see little evidence that India/BCCI isn't anything but interested in Test cricket, even if that means Test series are played predominantly amongst the Big Three. The dream of 12+ nations playing Test cricket is a worthy one, but increasingly unrealistic. - The international interest in ODIs outside of the WC every 4 years waned materially some time ago, so not sure increasing bilateral ODI matches is of much use going forward.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Well, that's what Graeme Smith announced in January this year, so see what eventuates.
Nick
Roar Guru
I think the pitches were crap as well
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I believe there was one August series a few years ago.
CPM
Roar Rookie
Test cricket needs to go. When you have three countries blocking the calendar for themselves and preventing equal tours for all others that’s the problem right there. It’s more likely in the long run that nations will do a simple calculation and work out that a two or three test match series over 21 days brings in less revenue than 5 ODI and 3 T20 matches over the same period. It will start with the smaller nations leaving only the three abusers of test cricket trying to preserve that dead format. . ODI cricket still has the World Cup draw card and potentially for new nations it easier for them to compete at ODI and T20 level.
The Bush
Roar Guru
The issue with all of this is what is the end result? If every country has a 'black out window' where they don't play international cricket, it'll make international tours very difficult to pursue. If Australia's doesn't match up with RSAs, then when do the teams play each other? Presumably New Zealand will eventually follow suit? What do we do when inevitably all nations do this? Other sports do it differently, they have 'international windows' wherein players have to be available, but the current set up for cricket can't work that way - test players play for months each year, home and away. In a perfect world you'd have something like a "northern" and "southern" window for domestic T20 leagues, but that'll never happen - the IPL will always be alone, so what do you do then, have three windows? But that still doesn't work, because all the various leagues want the group of carnival players to come (i.e. the full time T20 specialists). It's hard to see how the administrators ever get on top of this, but for the good of cricket, something needs to be done. The first issue is that three forms of international cricket is too much. Part of this too is that there are too many tournaments. It would seem to me that ODI cricket needs to go. Apparently Australia will only play 40 ODIs between the 2019 and 2023 world cups. In other words, they play barely enough to meet obligations and have some vague idea who should be in the team for the next world cup. In short, the entire version now only exists to service a world cup. If that's the case, if the games can't stand on their own, then the format should disappear. At the same time, the T20 world cup should only be every four years. They need to ditch the Champions Trophy or whatever it's now called too. If cricket was reduced to Test cricket, T20 cricket, with fewer world cups, then at a domestic level you just have FC competitions and the domestic T20 leagues, again freeing up more time and resources. It's not perfect, but it would help the game in the long run.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Thousands of farming families destroyed by financial ruin and suicide. Farming communities destroyed. The human cost of previous foot and mouth outbreaks around the world is well documented. Still very little being done to stop it at the border.
Simoc
Guest
BBL could have owned the time slot but got greedy, extended the time for the tournament, due to inept management. And players come and go, devaluing the tournament. The equally hopeless Channel 7 coverage comes and goes, so the games aren't on every night, due to their grossly incompetent management and zero knowledge of the product. And every T20 player in the world knows it, so we become the kindergarten rather than the top line. All due to the previous incompetence of the Brylcream boy and his team.
Nick
Roar Guru
Nameless Cows can be rebred. Humans can't. Covid is still vastly worse. Perspective Jeff.
Nick
Roar Guru
An August test series in South Africa?
Nick
Roar Guru
Even more so when you consider that tickets are becoming increasingly more expensive for baseball matches.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
It's incredibly naive to confuse the motives of South African cricket to pull out of a meaningless ODI series in a foreign country so players can be available for their domestic league as simply "money". CA have treated the BBL as a joke almost since its inception, with so many of the best locals made unavailable due to poor scheduling, so it would be no surprise to see it get overtaken by leagues in countries that actually take it seriously. If the best Australians aren't even playing, how can we expect the best foreigners to be interested?
Rellum
Roar Guru
IF you want to get technical 2430 games plus the postseason which last season was 37 I think. It is a massive number of games and I never cease to get amazed at the fan turn out to such a marathon.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
2400 games per season then.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
You cant be serious with that statement. The introduction of the EPL was about the clubs taking control of the revenue,and only involved some minor changes less teams, but no different to the first division which was around 100 years before that and took up most of the year. Internationals were played with bordering nations and were not frequent at all. Cricket was predominantly based around the local league county cricket since the 1700's. The difference is with the English cricket season being short meant touring other countries was a bigger option and playing full test series became common. One day cricket meant international matches became more frequent, local one day matches more popular then local long form matches. County cricket at one stage could have become the epicenter of cricket by having the worlds best players but then they decided to limit the number of foreigners to one in county cricket. I remember with Richards and Garner they were big news in county cricket. Its funny then they change the rules to make the hundred have more foreigners. Maybe T20 will be wiped out by the hundred the T10 or even the 60. You cant argue T20 is the big thing in England they have the hundred.
Rellum
Roar Guru
A MLB franchise plays 162 games per season plus play offs